UK PM pushes ahead with gay marriage legislation

Updated
February 04, 2013 10:47:00

It was never going to go smoothly but the British prime minister David Cameron's push for legalisation of gay marriage has hit more opposition than perhaps he'd anticipated. With a vote in the Commons on Tuesday he faces a revolt from within his ranks, but Mr Cameron says it's a matter of basic equality.

TONY EASTLEY: It was never going to go smoothly but the British prime minister David Cameron's push for legalisation of gay marriage has hit more opposition than perhaps he'd anticipated.

With a vote in the commons on Tuesday he faces a revolt from within, as correspondent Philip Williams reports from London.

PHILIP WILLIAMS: On a freezing London afternoon there was a knock at the door at number 10 Downing street. There, hand delivering a written plea to drop the controversial vote, were 23 past or present conservative party constituency chairmen.

The bill was the wrong message at the wrong time, they argued, and would cost the party dearly at the next election.

One of those councillors, Ben Harris-Quinney.

BEN HARRIS-QUINNEY: There's been no mandate for this same-sex marriage bill in the 2010 conservative manifesto, in the coalition agreement or in the Queen's speech laying out the legislative agenda.

The bill is packed full of unintended consequences. There are some really dangerous things in that bill that could potentially change our country in ways that I don't think people have fully considered.

PHILIP WILLIAMS: But the argument the issue needs an election to legitimise a vote has failed to dissuade the prime minister David Cameron who says it's a matter of basic equality.

DAVID CAMERON: I'm in favour of gay marriage because I'm a massive supporter of marriage and I don't want gay people to be excluded from a great institution. But let me be absolutely, 100 per cent clear: If there is any church or any synagogue or any mosque that doesn't want to have a gay marriage, it will not, it absolutely must not be forced to hold it.

PHILIP WILLIAMS: Despite those assurances no church would be forced to conduct same-sex weddings, Christian activists like Richard Carvath are literally praying the vote will fail.

RICHARD CARVATH: I pray for forgiveness for my nation as my government seeks to redefine marriage. I pray that these plans would fail.

PHILIP WILLIAMS: And one newspaper claims up to 180 of David Cameron's own conservative MPs will use the free vote to try and kill the bill.

Former conservative party leader, now foreign secretary, William Hague has changed his views and now supports it.

WILLIAM HAGUE: As times have changed civil partnerships came in. Within a remarkably short period of time those things become accepted. I think the same will happen with this.

PHILIP WILLIAMS: With a stalled economy and a multitude of financial and social challenges those against this bill say it's simply not a priority. Those couples waiting for the chance to marry argue it's already decades overdue.